When Lily and Sirius Make a Deal
by Avahin
Summary: You'll just have to read it to find out what happens, won't you? SBRL and JPLE duh
1. It starts with a challenge

If you asked James Potter, he would say he never found it weird that two of his best friends were always touchy-feely with each other. In fact, it was very odd to him when they weren't. If you asked Peter Pettigrew, he would agree automatically, not just because it was something that James said, but because he honestly felt it was one of the few things that were right in the world, much like the existence of sliced bread. If you asked Lily Evans, she would grudgingly admit that this was one of maybe – _maybe_ – three things she and James agreed upon. She would also add that the one time Remus Lupin and Sirius Black had honestly fought, the whole school felt out of tune. If you ever thought of asking Severus Snape, he would tell you to fuck off and that there were no two bastards that deserved to be together more than those two. If you asked either of the two in question, they would let you know that they had always behaved as such and that they were merely the best of friends to act as such. Then, no matter which you asked, as long as they were together, and they nearly always were, Sirius would hug Remus tightly and Remus would grin almost apologetically at you and return the gesture.

Which was why it came as such a shock when Remus Lupin announced that, or rather was caught, dating someone and that someone was not Sirius Black. Shock is perhaps a bit of an understatement. It was as if the only two people who were not confused in the entire school were Remus Lupin and his girlfriend, Clarissa Vapris. Even Sirius was somewhat perplexed, though only James was really able to tell, leading the whole school to think that maybe this was just a prank, though apparently not a very convincing one as Severus said that Remus didn't have the balls to be with a girl. However, after a few days of seeing Remus and Clarissa together everywhere, it was becoming hard not to accept that the two of them were honestly dating. Peter soon found himself admitting that the two of them seemed to fit well together, and he couldn't deny that the smile on Remus' face was a truly happy one. A fact that Lily also picked up on as it was a smile reserved only for a select few, and she had always taken pride on the fact that she was the only female who had ever received that smile – at least, she had been until Clarissa appeared. Something that she, very regrettably, shared with Sirius one drunken night when she somehow found herself in his dormitory and he was the only one around.

"You mean you're jealous?" Sirius asked with an eyebrow raised as he poured himself a shot of Firewhiskey.

Lily glared at him. "Shut up," she mumbled as she stole the glass from him and downed it in one gulp. "Besides don't you feel the same way?" She held the glass out and he willingly refilled it.

Sirius had been saving up the liquor for when the Gryffindors win the Quidditch match on Saturday, but he decided that seeing Little-Miss-Perfect-Head-Girl-Lily-Evans drunk would be much more exciting. Unfortunately, she was taking a long time getting drunk.

"What are you talking about?" he wondered as he opened up another bottle and took a swig directly from it.

She rolled her emerald green eyes and sighed. "Don't you play dumb with me, Black," she warmed before emptying the glass and turning a shade of red that severely clashed with her hair. "I've seen the way you look at the two of them when you think no one's watching." Her voice lowered and she stuck out her index finger to wag it at him. "You look at them so forlornly, at her almost hatefully, and at him so longingly. It's pitiful," she spat, snagging the bottle from his lips. "Absolutely pitiful."

Suddenly, Sirius wasn't so sure he liked the idea of Lily drunk anymore. She was pretty mean after a couple drinks.

He placed a hand over his heart and pouted playfully, "That really hurt, Evans."

"Suck it up, Black," she growled. "Why don't you just admit that you have feelings for Remus? You'd both be better off that way and the school can go back to normal."

"Only if you admit your undying love for James first," Sirius snapped back, dropping the nice act. "And what are you talking about 'normal'? Hogwarts is the same as it ever was."

"Hah, I'd sooner kiss a monkey's ass than admit that. And haven't you noticed how everyone seems out of sync these days, how whenever you walk by, people start whispering, and," she held her finger up to silence Sirius' opening mouth, "you know they're talking about you because even _I_ can hear your name and I'm always a good foot in front of you. Besides you can't deny that you don't feel like yourself not clinging to Remus all the time." She took a drink and when she looked up, she caught Sirius looking down dejectedly and pointed it out with an exclamation of "Aha!"He looked up at her with startled gray eyes before attempting to laugh it off, but Lily saw how the laugh stayed only in his mouth. "Oh, who are you trying to fool?" She shook her head and shoved the half empty bottle into his hands. "I'll make you a deal, Black. You get your act together with Remus, and I'll give Potter a chance."

Sirius gulped down two large mouthfuls and laughed again. "Yeah right, Evans. Two reasons why not," he began before she could ask and stuck up his index finger. "One, Remus ain't interested. And two," he held up the next finger, "you ain't gonna keep up your end of the deal."

"Hey, don't you start speaking like you're tough with me. And why wouldn't I keep my word? I'm very trustworthy, you know."

"You honestly want me to believe that after nearly seven years of hating James Potter, you're going to give him a chance if I get together with Remus?" he asked skeptically while taking a hesitant sip from the bottle. He had to admit, he was worried crazy was infectious.

"Yup," she confirmed with a nod before leaning dangerously close to him – so close that he could start to see the orange flecks in her eyes that James was always talking about. "You don't trust me?" she whispered, and he felt the breath on his whiskers that had grown out since his last shave. "How about we make an _Unbreakable Vow_ then? Her normally pale thin lips that suddenly were blazing red and luscious tugged upwards in a mischievous smile and Sirius found himself unable to deny the girl.

"S-sure," he muttered. He would have agreed to anything to get the demon off of him.

Perfect teeth gleamed through the red lips with delight. In an instant, she was off of him and holding her wand in hand. She grabbed Sirius' hand fiercely in her own.

"Wait!" he exclaimed and she growled with displeasure. "Don't we need a witness or someone else to perform the Unbreakable Vow?" he asked rationally.

Lily frowned, not only because he brought up a good point, but because Sirius Black brought up a good point that she hadn't thought about. As she began to find a solution for the problem, the door to the dormitory swung open and in came a very worn out be happy Remus Lupin followed by a disapproving James Potter and a hungry Peter Pettigrew.

"Perfect!" she exclaimed, jumping up before Sirius pulled her back down hastily.

"Are you out of your mind?" he hissed in her ear as James took a moment to register the love of his life in his dormitory being awfully chummy with his best mate. "You can't ask any of them to do it."

Before she could ask why not, James descended upon them with jealousy, rage and confusion, and all hell broke loose in the dormitory despite the fact that there was a Head Boy, a Head Girl, and a prefect in the room. As the three of them (and Peter) would later agree upon, it was completely and utterly Sirius Black's fault.

Though she had been utterly and completely embarrassed by the events of the previous night, Lily was now filled with a new sense of determination to get Sirius and Remus together. Not that she was eager to make good on her deal with Sirius. No. She could have lived her entire life through without going on a single date with James Potter. But she had gotten bored of the daily routine and now to have a project just made her so excited that she was smiling through and through.

"What's with the smile, Lily?" Remus asked from in front of her. She had been too busy caught up in her own thoughts to notice the other boy as she was heading for the library, but she was glad that he had noticed her.

"Smile?" she inquired as she shook her head and tried her best to frown. "What are you talking about?"

Remus grinned his own delightful smile and she melted a little bit inside. Even though she firmly believed that Remus and Sirius belonged together and had believed so since…well maybe even since the first time she saw they together, she did have her own little crush on the sweet boy. He was, after all, the most endearing of the four rowdy boys and perhaps the gentlest, despite his "furry little problem" as James put it, of the most eligible men in the school. She was even willing to go as far to say the _only_ eligible _man_ in the school.

"Did something good happen? Were you able to Obliviate the memories of all who say you inebriated last night?" he teased. "Are you here to Obliviate me as well?" There was a playful tone of mild shock as he went on to say, "If you are, I kindly ask that you not go so far as to erase all my memories from last night. Just the ones that pertain to you, Sirius, James, and Peter."

"What happened last night that you don't want to forget?" Lily asked in return, ignoring his questions, as she caught him by the arm and began leading him away from the library, where he had clearly come from, and the common room, where he was obviously going.

He flushed slightly as he followed her lead. "Nothing important," he mumbled. "Just a kiss," he confessed, knowing that she would not give up until she found out, and he wasn't really in the mood to fight back.

Lily clapped her hands excitedly as her eyes lit up with the knowledge. "Really?" she asked, finding it very amusing that he was so embarrassed over "just a kiss." He really was too innocent for his own good. How he stayed that way despite sharing a dorm with Sirius and James, she'll never know. Thinking of whom, she remembered her initial goal and the light in her eyes slowly dimmed out. "That's so sweet. But, Remus, you know, I've been thinking."

Remus looked at her skeptically. There was nothing wrong with Lily thinking. She was a brilliant young girl and she always thought. It was when she told you that she had been thinking that the real trouble began. "Yes?" he asked hesitantly, not knowing whether or not he wanted to know what she had been thinking, but knowing all the same that she would tell him anyway.

"This Clarissa girl, I don't know much about her, do I? She just kind of came out of nowhere."

"What do you mean, Lily? She's a Ravenclaw, brilliant, much like you, and funny. I'm surprised you don't remember her. We've had many classes with her before and I'm pretty sure both of us have partnered up with her before."

Lily ginned at the comment before shaking her head. Of course she knew _who_ Clarissa Vapris was, she just didn't know about her or, more specifically, how Remus knew her in such an intimate manner. "Right, right, I sort of remember her now," she lied. "How did you two get together though? Before your great revealing, I don't think I had seen you two together before."

The great revealing Lily mentioned was when Sirius, James and Peter "accidentally" caught Remus and Clarissa one a date in Zonko's Joke Shop and as a result were so shocked that they "accidentally" fired sixteen fireworks, let loose eight cans of fake snakes and spiders, popped ten festive crackers, and set off five large booby traps, giving the students at Zonko's a trip to remember. Though there were minor injuries, Remus was able to quickly heal them and James was able to pay for all the damage they caused and some, to keep Zonko from complaining.

"We just started studying one day and after about three months of meeting each other in the library and studying, she asked me out. It was actually our first date when Sirius, James and Peter found us in Zonko's," he admitted with a sheepish grin. "Don't tell anyone, Lily," he began as she leaned in. Lily loved it when anyone ever told her not to tell anyone or to keep it a secret or to promise not to tell, "but I wasn't sure if I really wanted to date her. See, there was someone else I had liked. But after the 'great revealing' we just decided to stick with it. Everyone was already watching us anyway, and I don't regret the decision at all."

"Who was this someone else you had liked?" she asked carefully, though she already had a sneaking suspicion of what the answer would be.

"Not telling," Remus teased. "It's all in the past anyway." He smiled widely as she frowned to show her displeasure. Though Lily was more upset that Sirius was the one who had ruined his own chances than she was at Remus who wouldn't tell her he had liked (and still probably did, at least in her mind) Sirius. "Where are we going anyway, Lily? It seems to me that we've just been walking around in circles."

She looked up at him and then at their surroundings to see that they were in the same spot that they had started off in. "Not telling," she mocked as she continued to walk him around.

Sirius Black was well known for his skills of secrecy. Ever since the age of four, he had learned how to keep his mouth shut and, he had to say, he was pretty proud of being able to. In fact, anyone who knew anything about Sirius Black knew pretty much nothing other than what they saw of him, unless they went by the names of James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Lily Evans. How Lily Evans ever got on that list was a mystery to him, but he liked to think it was the fault of James Potter and Remus Lupin. The only thing was that Sirius had some issues keeping large secrets from his best friend in the entire world, James. There were some things that he absolutely refused to tell James, but when James began pestering him non-stop about what he and Lily discussing the other night, Sirius decided it wasn't really worth keeping secret. After all, since they hadn't made the Unbreakable Vow, it seemed rather futile to him to even bother, especially since he could see how happy Clarissa made Remus and he didn't want to break that.

"If you'll just shut up for a second," Sirius growled through the bathroom door as he stepped out of the shower and patted himself dry, "I'll tell you what the hell we were discussing and I assure you that it was nothing of the sexual manner."

Obediently, James shut his trap and sat outside the door waiting patiently like a little puppy waiting for a meal, which was only slightly ironic. Five minutes later, just as James was about to whine again, Sirius came out looking incredibly handsome, as he always did, wearing flannel pajama pants and a towel draped around his bare shoulders. An effort, that he put very little into, that was wasted on James who trailed him all the way over to his bed and sat down on the edge as Sirius shuffled toward the center.

"So?" James prompted after three minutes of Sirius drying his hair in silence.

Sirius looked up, as if just noticing James on his bed for the first time. "What?"

"What were you talking about? Why can't Remus know? If he can't know, you better tell me quick. He can't be out all night, you know." James paused and thought about that for a second. "I mean, he could, but he's Remus Lupin, the boy who just had his first kiss the other night."

If Sirius was surprised by the statement, he ignored it and sighed. "Well, we were talking about Remus. And you, for that matter."

"You were talking about me?" His hazel eyes lit up with excitement and he leaned towards Sirius on all fours. The other boy was disturbingly reminded of the similar action Lily had done the night before. "What were you talking about? What did you say? What did _she_ say? Did she talk about my good looks? My dashing wit? My wonderful muscles? Or did she mention something about our patrol walks together as Head Boy and Head Girl?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and Sirius pushed him back.

"We only mentioned you about twice in the conversation, you big-headed egotistical dimwit," Sirius replied before going on to say, in a softer voice, "We actually sort of made a deal that involved you and Remus."

"Sort of made a deal," James repeated with genuine interest and a mischievous glint. "What sort of a deal did you guys make while being inebriated?"

"Only Evans was inebriated." Sirius flopped down on his back and looked up at the red canopy before answering. "Well it went along the lines of if I admit to liking Remus, she'll go on a date with you," he mumbled, hoping James wouldn't catch it, but he should have known better.

"Then what are you waiting for?" James shouted eagerly. "Go tell him now!"

"It's a little more complicated. You see, Remus has to return the sentiments and agree to go out with me," Sirius amended quickly. "But the deal doesn't mean anything. We didn't make the Unbreakable Vow, and Lily probably regrets even saying that now. She had a lot to drink."

James rolled his eyes and lay down next to Sirius. It was a little cramped, two seventeen year old boys lying side by side with their arms propped out underneath their heads, but it was tradition for whenever they spoke of something serious, and tradition was not to be tampered with.

"So what if it doesn't mean anything? I don't get it Sirius. You've been waiting forever to find an excuse to tell Remus, and then you lost your chance. But now you have another one. It's practically being forced upon you." Sirius had to disagree with James about that. It wasn't as if he absolutely had to go tell Remus. It was just that in James' point of view, this could be his only shot at getting a date with Lily. And, to Sirius, that was a little bit pathetic, so he bit his tongue and let James continue. "You know, if Remus ends up telling you that he just doesn't feel the same way, then you can tell him that you didn't mean it and it was just a plot to get me and Lily together." He grinned at the thought. "Remus can't say anything about that. He knows how much Lily means to me and how much I mean to you."

"You think much too highly of yourself, James," Sirius muttered, but James heard it anyway and whacked Sirius upside the head. "Ouch! What was that for?"

"Just a sign of affection."James smiled innocently and Sirius returned the gesture and smile.

"Right back at you."

After which a little brawl started between the two and only ceased when Lily burst in upon them angrily demanding why James was shirking his Head Boy duties and not meeting in the Gryffindor Common Room at exactly a quarter to eleven so they could begin their rounds at exactly eleven.

"So, Lily," James said, drawing out each syllable in a sort of tune as they passed down yet another empty hallway with lit wands.

"What, Potter?" she snapped back, clearly still vexed at his tardiness, or perhaps just vexed with him in general. He could get pretty annoying at times.

"I heard something really interesting from Sirius earlier." He kept up with his irritating sing-song voice, making the stone walls echo with his voice.

"Care to share?" she asked nonchalantly though her heart was actually racing, afraid Sirius had told James their discussion.

"Well, it had something to do with him saying that you two made a sort of a deal which involved you and me on a date provided that Sirius and Remus go on one as well," he blurted out and it was rather strange that the only words that resonated were "you," "me" and "date." James thought it was fate trying to tell them something. Lily thought it was James being stupid.

Secretly furious at Sirius who had told her that it was absolutely idiotic to ask James to perform the Unbreakable Vow, she replied matter-of-factly, "So I did."

James grinned a grin so wide, that Lily thought his face would split in two. "Wonderful!" he exclaimed. She waited for him to say something more, but he merely strode along with a skip in his step and that moronic smile pasted on his face.

"What? Was that it, Potter?" she prompted, wanting to get to the bottom of his game.

"Oh?" he sang once again as he turned to face her with a wicked smile. "Were you expecting more?"

She immediately slapped his cheek and strode forward as he clutched the wound as best he could. "No," she replied frigidly as he hurried to catch up to her with the right side of his face burning red. "Just wondering if you were ready to shut up yet."

"I see," he drew out as he strolled next to her. "Well, you know, Lily, light of my life, there was something else."

"What was it?" she asked as patiently as she could, even choosing to ignore the comment about her being the light of his life, which he happened to notice and caused him to smile even more. It seemed to her that he had not stopped smiling since they started talking.

"I would like to offer you my aide in fixing up Sirius and Remus. After all the two of them are _my_ best friends and I know them pretty well. Not to mention they both trust me, and if you want them to go anywhere together and alone, well, I think you'll need my help," he said rather pridefully, but he wasn't wrong in anything he said and it pained Lily to know so. In fact, she even made a face of agony, causing James to inquire if anything was wrong with the sweetest sugar plum he had ever seen. Another slap to the opposite side of his face reassured him that all was right with his darling flower blossom.


	2. And advances with a plan

Remus hadn't noticed until James pointed it out, but he realized, about a month after he started dating Clarissa, that he had spent so little time with his fellow Marauders, Sirius in particular. Therefore, when James decided that it would be a good night, the night after a rather uneventful full moon (well…as uneventful as full moons went), to sneak into Hogsmeade for a couple of butterbeers or maybe even a bottle of Firewhiskey, Remus decided that he would break off the study date with Clarissa, who was very understanding about the whole matter, and spend some good quality time with his best mates. Yet, when the time came for the four of them to go off to Hogsmeade, James decided that Remus was looking too peakish to stay out all night, and so also decided that he and Peter should go grab the butterbeers for all of them and the four of them can have a night in drinking, talking and playing games.

"Just like we used to before somebody got a steady girlfriend," James promised with an accusatory glare at Remus. Peter didn't bother to mention that he too was seeing somebody as he felt that it was not the point. Not to mention, unlike Remus, he always chose his friends over his girl whenever they asked, or even when they didn't, because to be fair, they never did ask, him to. He straightened up with a little bit of pride before James grabbed his wrist and dragged him out of the dorm.

Remus gave Sirius a look of confusion and Sirius shrugged slightly before plopping down in Remus' bed. "What are you working on right now?" Sirius asked watching Remus scribble something down on a scroll. "Homework?"

Remus grinned, having just realized how much he missed Sirius' company. "I don't always do homework, you know," Remus replied as he rolled his eyes. He finished writing one more line before putting away his quill and rolling up his scroll. "It's a to do list for the next month."

"Am I on there?" Sirius waggled his eyebrows, reminding Remus very much of James.

"You wish," Remus answered while leaning his head against Sirius' shoulder.

Silently Sirius responded that he really did wish so as he brought his arm around and pulled Remus into a tight hug. He missed being able to nearly crush the thinner boy and feeling how his smaller body fit so snuggly in between his arms and his body. He smiled as he felt Remus barely struggle to respond to the hug with a little less enthusiasm. Remus, too, had missed the feeling of security he felt when Sirius hugged him, and even though a countless number of people had commented on how close the two of them were physically, he had never really noticed until just now. It seemed to Remus that he was beginning to notice a great number of things lately.

The two of them shared their longest hug that night, lasting nearly five minutes, neither really wanting to let go of each other. Finally, Remus was starting to suffocate and gently pushed Sirius away. For his part, Sirius was starting to get tired of squeezing Remus so much. He could swear his biceps were a little bit sore from the activity.

"Hey, Sirius," Remus said after a few seconds.

"Hmm?" Sirius asked from Remus' lap where he had repositioned himself.

Remus smiled a sweet smile and picked up a book from the nightstand as he settled back into his pillows. "Nothing."

Sirius matched that smile and closed his eyes peacefully. "I missed you too, Remy."

When James came back with a handful of Firewhiskey and mulled mead and a Peter stuffed with butterbeers he found his two other best friends dozing away on Remus' bed all too innocently for his liking, at least not at the pace he would have preferred them to go. James sighed, instructed Peter to go to sleep (after allowing him a couple of butterbeers to take with him) and stowed away the rest of the alcohol for another night, most probably for after his first date with Lily. Then he gently rearranged Sirius and Remus, with the help of magic (of course – James, after all, was not as strong as he claimed to be), into a _cozier_ position. Then he slipped into bed with a satisfied smile. Oh, Lily would be proud of him.

Sirius stirred awake just before dawn and found his arms filled with a dozing Remus with the two of them tucked snuggly under the covers. He thought nothing of it other than a pleasant dream, drew Remus closer to him, and kissed the boy on the top of his beautiful head. Then he fell back asleep as it was a Saturday morning and he had nothing better to do. About two hours later, Remus blearily blinked open his eyes to find darkness. When he tried to wipe away the darkness with his hands, he found his arms pinned down. Struggling like a salmon trying to swim upstream, he finally found the light, fresh air, and Sirius lightly snoring next to him. There was a small moment of panic and confusion, but, as was Remus' style, his calm and level-headed mind shoved all that to the back and he wiggled himself free of Sirius, who then snorted twice and rolled onto his other side. Remus smiled at the image of Sirius sleeping before silently slipping out of bed, careful not to disturb Sirius. When he emerged from behind the curtains, he found James grinning from ear to ear wickedly.

"I never thought you were one to leave after sex without letting the other one know," James whispered.

Remus swiftly moved over to James' bed, successfully putting him in a head lock. "It was your doing, wasn't it?" he growled playfully into James ear as the other boy fought back and after a few minutes managed to pin down Remus.

"Maybe it was, and maybe it wasn't," he finally replied breathlessly with a triumphant tone. "What's it to you?"

"I just want to know who's trying to turn me gay," Remus answered accusatorily.

"Turn you?" James asked with shock as his eyebrows disappeared behind his bangs. "I'm just trying to make you see who you really are."

Remus rolled his eyes and shoved James off of him. "Maybe you're trying to tell me what kind of person _you_ really are."

"What kind of person is he?" Sirius asked, popping out from Remus' bed. "And how come you're on the right today, James? Don't tell me you switched beds with Peter. Or maybe you're in his bed with him! And Remus has joined you for a three some!" Sirius gasped with both hands covering his open mouth. "How could you do this and leave me out of it?" He scrambled out of Remus' bed and jumped into James', rummaging through the sheets in an attempt to find the missing Peter before James and Sirius both pushed him off the bed.

"Moron," James said. "You're the one who's sleeping in the wrong bed. What are you doing in Remus' bed anyway?" James lay down on his stomach so his face hung over Sirius'. "Remus wouldn't say a word. Some sort of secret the two of you are sharing?" Though his words were audible to both of them, only Sirius heard the other half, to which he responded with a grimace and James responded with a knowing smile and nod.

After which, Sirius pulled James down to the floor with him. "I would never leave you out of the loop, Prongsie, my boy. You're my best mate after all." Though he smiled, James had the vague feeling he was being threatened.

James probably should have thought something was up when Lily asked to meet with him at the Astronomy Tower, but he was a boy in love. He probably should have realized something was off when he dreamily told his best friends about the "date" and Sirius smirked, not smugly, but as if James had just fallen into his trap, but he was a boy in love. In fact, his greatest clue probably should have been seeing Sirius a top the Astronomy Tower, even if he was on the opposite side that Lily was at, but he was a boy in love. And therefore ignored all the signs.

"My sweetest Lily Evans. My reason for being. My dearest sweetheart. My darling cupcake. My-"

"Please Potter. Any more and I'm going to hex you before vomiting over the edge of the tower," she replied with a snarl.

"Don't lean out too far. I wouldn't want you falling over too," Sirius said with a grin as he walked toward the two.

Lily smiled sarcastically at him and tilted her head to one side so all her red hair fell over her right shoulder and swung behind her in what James found to be a very tantalizing manner. "Since when did you care?"

"Since James has been utterly in love with you and would likely follow you down," Sirius replied matching her expression.

"Yes, Lily darling, please don't fall over," James added, drawing her attention back to him. "Why is Sirius here? I thought it would just be the two of us," he whispered the last three words like they made a secret and he didn't want to hurt Sirius' feelings. Of course Sirius, who was now standing right next to James, heard the words and slapped James' head, to which he responded, "OW!"

"Shush," Lily demanded. "It's after hours and we might be able to find an excuse for being here, but Sirius is a good-for-nothing-bad-student who will get us in trouble."

"We could just say we found him up here puffing away on some cigarettes," James offered, still uncertain as to why Sirius was here in the first place. Maybe he was into voyeurism. Or maybe he was here to learn a few things about kissing from James and Lily. Yeah, that was the more likely of the two, after all, Sirius was never really one for fetishes, aside from that one he had with socks. James' unconsciously made a face as he remembered the day he found Sirius naked with only a sock on his –

"What's with that hideous face, James?" Sirius asked as he narrowed his eyes almost as if he knew what James was thinking about. "And I don't smoke. Smoking kills, idiot."

"Shut up, you two," Lily shouted as best she could in a whisper. Though those two may have been used to getting detentions, Lily Evans had yet to get one. Not that she actually planned on marring her perfect record which would land her an amazing job teaching at one of the higher educational magic institutes that she was also going to go to and graduate from with Outstandings in every single subject. Her future was much too precious for that. "Sirius is here because we needed to talk without the fear of Remus interrupting us and I suggested that you come as well, since you offered your help and all."

"Something that you failed to tell me, Prongs," Sirius added sternly.

James shrugged casually as he sat down on the cold stone wondering why they couldn't have chosen somewhere warmer to meet if they were just going to talk. It was already fall, after all, and he didn't want to catch a cold so soon in the last year of Hogwarts. "Must have slipped my mind, that's all. Anyway, what's the plan?"

"There is no plan," Sirius answered as he leaned against one of the railings on the tower. "And I don't appreciate that little prank you pulled yesterday morning, James. You're lucky Remus didn't freak out or else I would have killed you."

"Remus doesn't understand the meaning of freaking out or overreacting. Besides, you two were already in the bed together. I just rearranged you in a more comfortable position."

"We were plenty comfortable already before you moved us."

"Oh, I'm sure you were, with your head at his crotch, but Remus looked a little tired half sitting, and you wouldn't want your precious Remus to wake up with a sore neck, would you?" James asked innocently.

Lily had already heard about the prank from Remus when he explained why he had been late to a promised breakfast with her. She was unable to get a clear reading on how he felt about it because after a cup of orange juice and a slice of toast, he ran off to study with Clarissa. Ahem. "Study" with Clarissa.

"Sirius is right, James. You can't do something that bold. Remus is going to know something is off, and when he does, he's not going to stop until he gets to the bottom of this whole fiasco. If he finds out about the deal or what we're doing, Sirius is going to have no chance in hell with Remus, especially with how happy he is right now with Clarissa," Lily reasoned out and Sirius thought she stole the words right out of his open mouth. "So we have to break them up first." Except for those words. Sirius shut his mouth. Those were not words he had been thinking of.

"Excellent idea, Lily!" James thought, jumping up at the idea of it. "We, Marauders, are absolutely excellent at breaking people up. In fact, we have been hired to do so. You know of Frank Longbottom and Lisel Winnet? Well, Alice wasn't so keen on the idea of the two of them together, so she asked us if we could sympathize with her a bit and help her out. A little help goes a long way," he said with a wink.

"I disagree," Sirius said as he stared down at what he thought were the empty grounds. "We can't break them up. Have you ever seen Remus this happy before?" As he spoke, two figures emerged from the shadows of the weeping willow beside the lake, one of them unmistakably Remus. Though the Astronomy Tower's point was far above the ground, he could hear the murmurs of exchange between the two and the wonderful soft laughter that he had grown to love filling the air. Who was he to deny Remus' first love?

"Yes, I have," Lily said adamantly. "I'm sure James agrees with me when I say that I have seen him as happy with you as he is with her." She walked over and stood next to him, looking down at the couple sneaking and giggling back towards the school. "Maybe even happier when he's with you." She placed her hand on his back in an attempt to be comforting, but since it was their first encounter doing so, it was more awkward than anything else.

He turned around, causing her hand to lose its placement (not that he had planned that or even thought about it), and smiled. "If that's true, it's only because he feels more comfortable around me."

"Exactly," she exclaimed. "He feels more comfortable around you!"

"Because he's known me longer," Sirius said forcefully as he sat down next to James on the cold floor, wondering how the other was able to stand the cold. James shrugged as a response to Sirius' silent question.

"Yes, so?" Lily obviously had no idea how things worked in a boy's mind. "The point is that he is so much happier when he's with you and he's completely comfortable. He just needs to realize how much he likes you, or admit that he likes you."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Too comfortable, Evans. So comfortable that we're just friends." He stood up, tired of the conversation. "If you want to break up Remus and Clarissa, by all means, go ahead. I won't have a part of it."

"So chivalrous of you," Lily sneered as Sirius walked off. "If you're so good, why don't you stop us?"

Sirius, somehow liking the idea of a bad Lily, turned around and grinned. "Just because _I_ don't want to be a part of breaking up my best friend and his girlfriend, doesn't mean I don't want it to happen."

"Wait," James shouted after Sirius who was descending the stairs. "I thought _I_ was your best friend!"

"Leave it, Potter," Lily said as she plopped down next to him and shivered when she felt the cold stone. "We have a break up to plan."

Lily had insisted on meeting Clarissa formally and getting to know her one on one. She had Remus introduce the two of them over dinner the following night and then proposed that they, without Remus, have a fun shopping trip during the Hogsmeade trip on Saturday. As she kindly pointed out, Christmas was fast approaching. She promised only to take up the first half of the day, so that Remus could still enjoy a nice night with Clarissa. Lily would ensure that. She definitely wouldn't break them up just yet. Lily had to learn about Clarissa first. Oh, yes, yes she would. Then she would know exactly how she would break up Clarissa and Remus because James clearly had no clue about relationships and girls, especially girls. She sighed. How could James even think that some stupid prank would end up working without Remus finding out about it? Sometimes – no, all the time, boys were so stupid.

"Oh Clarissa," Lily said as she passed her and Remus on her way to finding a book in the library. The two of them were cuddled together in a soft comfortable chair, each reading their own book, and looking absolutely adorable. There was always the rare moment when Lily wondered whether Clarissa really was better for Remus than Sirius was, but then Lily realized that those were the moments when she found Clarissa accompanying Remus doing something they could each do just as well on their own. Though she was overly fond of books and studying, Lily never understood the appeal of reading silently with somebody else. "I can't wait for tomorrow," she finished with a broad smile. She had never had to fake being so excited before, but to be fair, she was actually a little bit excited. It just wasn't the same as when she was about to go shopping with her friends though. If it weren't for Remus' sake, she would have preferred to be out with her friends instead.

Clarissa smiled her almost perfect smile with pearly white teeth between glossed pink lips. "I can't wait either," she said just as enthusiastically. Remus looked up from his book at the two of them and smiled at Lily too in a thankful manner that she was getting to know his girlfriend, which caused a little twang of guilt in her heart. She covered that with a quick giggle and then disappeared before the two of them could say anything more.

In the morning, she got dressed nicely, not for any particular reason. She just wanted Clarissa to see that not all of Remus' friends were sloppy scumbags who weren't smart enough to thread a needle. That was it. It most certainly was not because she would be meeting up with James after to discuss her findings. In fact, she reasoned, she would probably look like a mess by then anyway and her pretty rouge lip gloss would have faded off by then. Not that she even had to think about this matter. James Potter was not worth thinking about or dressing nicely for anyway.

She had planned to meet Clarissa at the entrance hall, but found Clarissa in the common room with Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter. Lily smiled, not feeling the slightest bit jealous, and waved at the girl, who kissed Remus sweetly on the lips before joining Lily as they walked out. Lily, being the ever observant girl, noticed how Sirius' eyes flickered ever so slightly betraying his feelings to those who bothered to pay attention, of whom Remus had not been one. What a pity, she sighed.

"Is something the matter?" Clarissa asked, hearing Lily's sigh as they entered Hogsmeade.

Lily looked up and immediately put on her best smile. "Oh no, not at all. I was just thinking about all the homework that I have to do for Monday. But that's not important. Tell me about you and Remus," she prompted. "He doesn't say too much, being a boy and all, but I'm curious how you two came to be."

Two soft patches of pink graced her pale skin as Clarissa answered Lily's question in a quiet and almost embarrassed tone. "I had liked him since fifth year, but he never noticed me, not with his group of friends. Not to mention we only got to see each other in class and we never really spoke in class. But by the end of fifth year he started saying hi to me in the hallways. I was hoping to get a chance to get closer to him last year, but he was really distant all that year." She paused, wondering if Lily would comment on that, but the other girl merely nodded as an indication for Clarissa to continue. "At the end of last year, we bumped into each other and ended up discussing our schedules for this year. As it turned out, we both signed up for Professor Putlines' Muggle Studies class and I suggested we study together. I was hoping he would get the hint, but it didn't seem like he did."

"Remus can be a little dense in the ways of women like that," Lily agreed to which Clarissa laughed.

"Yes, well I finally got the courage to ask him out myself and you should have seen him." She laughed again with pleasant fondness. "He was so surprised that I was even talking to him. It took me awhile to convince him that I was asking him and not Nearly Headless Nick, who was floating nearby, before he finally agreed to it."

Lily giggled along with Clarissa, though she was only mildly amused by the story. It was indeed very cute and very Remus like and Lily commended Clarissa for her endurance to get Remus to like her, but for some reason, the story vexed her very much. But Lily was good at hiding her frustration, how else had she managed six going on seven years with James Potter in her house? So she smiled and began asking Clarissa about the rest of her life, such has her favorite color and what it was she enjoyed to do in her free time. She advised Clarissa on a present for Remus, for which Clarissa thanked her deeply, and bought a couple of her own presents for her friends, including one, surprisingly, for each James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew she knew. She figured that she had to thank James for his help, however slight it had been so far, get in on Sirius' good graces, just to be sure he would go through with what she thought would be one of the best relationships to ever exist, and make sure Peter didn't feel left out. Whatever it was she thought about those four friends, she always felt a little sorry for Peter who never seemed to fit together as the other three did. By the time her time was up with Clarissa and she was heading over to the Three Broomsticks to deliver Clarissa back to Remus, she had found out that Clarissa's favorite color was orange (a hideous shade of it no less), she enjoyed reading and practicing spells in her free time (how dull), and she once had an amazing talent for the violin before she injured her wrist in an accident and was unable to practice for half a year (Lily actually thought that was kind of cool).

"Thank you for inviting me to go out today, Lily," Clarissa said at the door before they entered the chaotic tavern. "It means a lot to me that you're trying to get to know me. Remus hasn't really shared me with any of his friends yet and I was starting to get worried he was embarrassed of me or something."

Guilt flooded Lily, who, unlike many would believe, had a very good conscience and a heart bigger than someone her size should have. But she hid it and smiled sweetly. "On the contrary, Remus is mostly likely embarrassed of his friends, especially considering how they uncovered your first date. But they're," she struggled for a moment to find the right word and then twitched a little as she said the word, "good people." She nodded for emphasis but also because she kind of believed that they were – well, to Remus at least. "Anyway, I shouldn't keep you away from Remus any longer. I'm sure you're eager to get back to him. I bet he has some sort of romantic dinner ready for you."

They two of them smiled and laughed like old friends and Lily couldn't help but feeling bad again that she was just going to end up deceiving this sweet girl. If only she could dig up some saucy secret about her, but that would just have to wait for another time. The door opened and they found Remus and James arm wrestling at a table all alone. Remus, after having James spot Lily, won with no difficulty and went to get his girl. He bid farewell to the other two and James promised not to wait up with a wink that caused the couple to flush red before they left.

"Where are Sirius and Peter?" Lily asked as she smiled and waved them away.

"Sirius said he couldn't stay to be a part of this scandal, and he took Peter, who didn't have any idea what was going on, away on a Honeydukes spree," James explained, mirroring the image, before he turned to Lily excitedly and asked, "What did you find out?"

Lily sighed in exasperation as she answered, "Absolutely nothing," before she launched into what she had learned. Soon James found out everything he had not wanted to know about Clarissa Vapris.


	3. To create or discover a scandal

James had greatly enjoyed the new time he was spending with Lily, even if all she would talk about were Remus, Clarissa, and Sirius. He felt that she was getting to know him better, and least he was getting to know her better, not that there was all that much more to know about her. After all, he hadn't spent six years stalking – following her without learning anything. On that note, he was also starting to learn a lot about Remus and Sirius that he hadn't known…and wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know or even to know how Lily knew things such as that time in third year when the two of them had accidentally worn each other's underwear for a week without realizing. James thought that was kind of gross, but apparently it was just a-okay for the two of them.

The only thing was that James was sort of, maybe, a little bit beginning to think their whole ploy was a bad idea. As much as James loved Lily (yes, he was man enough to say love even if she hardly even liked him) and Sirius (in a very brotherly manner, not the same way Sirius loved Remus), he also loved Remus (in the same sort of way he loved Sirius) and Clarissa was beginning to grow on him. He told this to both Lily and Remus one night.

Remus smiled with pure delight. "I knew you would like her. Even before we started dating I knew you would. I had thought about introducing the two of you. You see, Clarissa always talked about you and Sirius and all your amazing pranks. Sometimes she even had a few ideas on how to improve on them."

James glanced uneasily at Lily, who shrugged, before answering, "Well you should have introduced us to her sooner. Come on, Remus. You know that any friend of yours is a friend of ours." By ours he meant the Marauders' not his and Lily's.

"I don't make that many friends. So I guess I was a little worried, but I really shouldn't have been." He got up from his seat by the fire and clapped James fondly on the shoulder. "I have to get going. Clarissa's going back home for the holidays, so we're going to spend the last night together."

James waggled his eyebrows. "Together, hmm? Care to elaborate?"

Remus squeezed James' shoulder a little harder than was comfortable and grinned. "Not at all, James." Then he gave Lily, who had stood up in that little exchange, a hug. "I'll see you when you get back."

"Of course. Happy holidays, Remus." Lily had thought about staying for the holidays as well, but she loved her family very much, and she wasn't sure how much she would like it being here with mostly James, Sirius, and Remus and none of her other friends.

After Remus went out the portrait hole, Lily turned to James and said, "She's starting to grow on me too." Her tone was a little fond and mostly regret and guilt.

"Maybe we should stop this idea," he said, putting the possibility of the two of them getting together to the side. "I mean, maybe Sirius is right and this is a bad idea. You know, they really are happy together and Sirius is coping with it."

"By coping, do you mean pretending to study every night somewhere where he can't see Remus or Clarissa and that somewhere happening to be the Three Broomsticks?" she asked bitterly. "James, you know Sirius better than I do and you know very well that he isn't doing well at all. I'm pretty sure that before this year, Sirius has never even thought about what life would be like not being in the center of Remus'."

"He has once," James mumbled while noting that she was calling him by her first name now. What progress! "But are you really going to be able to live with the knowledge that you're going to be hurting her when she hasn't done anything wrong?"

Lily stared into the fire for a good long while musing over her thoughts before answering, "Don't lecture me on morals, Potter." Then she stood and went up to the girls tower without another word.

Oh, this was what they called two steps forward and one step back, he thought as he went up to the boys tower to pester Peter into some fun before he left.

The holidays passed with great festivity and chaos in Hogwarts. Since it was their final year, the three boys, well mostly James and Sirius with Remus half nagging and half helping, caused as much ruckus as they possibly could. And since it was their final year, they made it as harmless as they could. They even lightened up on Severus, who could do nothing more than grumble and shoot ugly stares at them after they charmed a dozen decorative cherubs to follow him everywhere he went and make it snow powdered sugar whenever they saw fit. The three of them could all agree that the presents were the best they had ever received, though Sirius and Remus did wish Lily had not gotten James a present as he could not shut up about the scarf he had gotten from her. Even Sirius mentioning that he too had gotten a scarf didn't deter James from singing about the scarf he had wrapped around his neck. In fact, he claimed that his, which was a rich shade of red, was more thoughtful than Sirius' navy scarf because Lily had bought his red as a constant reminder to him that she loved him. For you see, red not only resembled her hair, but was also the color of love and Gryffindor. Sirius and Remus wished more than anything the scarf would strangle him and add to that list the color of blood.

Luckily, the new year came quickly and before the boys knew it, the time for school and their final semester at Hogwarts to begin had already, well, begun.

Lily had, completely and utterly by coincidence, bumped into Clarissa during her vacation in the Alps with her parents skiing. As it turned out, Clarissa's parents owned a nice little vacation home in Switzerland, where she and her family stayed during the winter breaks and some summer breaks when England grew too hot to stay. She invited Lily and her family, each and every one of them including dear Petunia, to stay at the vacation home. Graciously, they all, with the exception of Petunia who complained of a terrible headache and demanded to be sent home first, accepted the offer and the two families had a great time bonding. As Clarissa was a halfblood, her parents had great fun teaching Lily's about the wizarding world as well as half bonding over muggle oddities. Meanwhile, the two girls quickly became the best of friends, which caused great guilt for Lily when she thought about it because of what she wanted to do. Once, she almost let her great plan slip, and asked what it was Clarissa thought about the relationship between Remus and Sirius.

"What do you mean?" Clarissa asked rather cluelessly as she painted a neutral pink shade on the nail of her left fourth finger.

"I mean their friendship. It's pretty close, isn't it?" Lily pressed a little further as she chose a brighter blue for herself.

Clarissa finished her pinky and paused for a moment to think. "I guess it is." Then she smiled, almost laughing, as she confessed, "You know, I was a little bit worried that Remus and Sirius were gay and together. That would have put a damper in my plans, wouldn't it have?"

"What plans?"

Clarissa's smiled switched gears as she tilted her head to the side and answered almost as if it had been rehearsed, "My plans to get together with Remus, of course." There was something that Lily found disturbing about the tone of that "of course" at the end, but she figured she had said enough on the topic, and Clarissa must have thought so too, as it was her turn to question Lily. "What about James?"

Lily's hands paused very briefly at the mention of his name before she asked in return as casually as possible, "What about him?"

Clarissa shrugged with the same carelessness as Lily's words. "He's always been after you, hasn't he? Don't you like him back?"

Then Lily laughed. Had it been a month or two ago, that laugh would have been genuine and her answer, "Of course not," would have been real, but as it was at this very moment now, Lily's laugh was blatantly fake and her "Of course not" could not have been more fake. Still, it seemed as if Clarissa bought her words, for there was a sigh (was it of relief?) and the tense atmosphere between them had dissipated as they moved on to a safer topic of what to do for the next day.

That little episode, however, had Lily thinking about a whole bunch of things. Mostly, what was it that Clarissa was hiding. At first, Lily had merely thought that Clarissa, like most people, had some sort of secret, but she had not thought that the secret would have been terrible. At most, Lily thought Clarissa's secret would have been that at the age of ten she was a total dork with braces and glasses and frizzy hair, but had gone through a major magical makeover when she was fourteen to have it fixed. Which would have honestly explained why Lily had not noticed her much at all until fifth year, and even then it was only because Remus just reminded her that she knew of Clarissa in fifth year. But after that night, even though the rest of the days with Clarissa were as normal as normal could be, Lily was convinced Clarissa was hiding something bigger, and she hoped – well almost hoped, because if she had really hoped so, she would have been a terrible terrible person – that the secret would break Clarissa and Remus up without her feeling guilty for doing so. In short, she – as horrible and wretched as it sounded – almost hoped that the secret would hurt Remus, but only a little intsy bitsy bit – as small as small could be, really.

"She asked about me, did she?" James reaffirmed after Lily had told her the story. The two of them were back on talking terms. Though Lily was not keen on forgiving James, he had begged for an apology, wearing the scarf she had gotten him, and she decided that since Sirius had bailed, she needed James, if only because he was someone to talk to while she sorted out her own thoughts. Not to mention, the necklace he had gotten her for Christmas was actually really nice and sort of thoughtful. Without waiting for her to say yes, James went on to say, rather smugly while also jokingly, "You see, Lily, I'm a fine catch. The ladies love me, but I'm saving myself just for you."

"And the three ex-girlfriends that you've had," she added on.

"Lily, darling," he whined. "They were nothing compared to you. Besides, if you had been keeping track of our relationship ups and downs, you would know that I got together with them only after a major shut down from you and that none of them lasted over a month."

She had not been keeping track of their "relationship" ups and downs, but she had noticed that none of them lasted over a month. Though, she didn't tell James this. Instead, she sighed and said, "Whatever, James. This is not the point. The point is that that conversation is a clue to something bigger."

"Maybe you're just paranoid," James said bluntly before realizing how insulting of a statement Lily would take that to be. "I mean, you just got to be really close to Clarissa, but you're planning on betraying her in the end. It's as if you're just using her. Well, you are just using her."

"I'm not paranoid," she snapped back, reluctant to admit that James might have been right. "And I'm not using her. She's just in the way. In fact, none of this would be an issue if she hadn't appeared in the first place," she nearly broke down crying. The truth of the matter was that James had hit so close to home that the windows were shattered and the door nearly splintered. Lily had thought a lot about everything James had said over and over again, and she just wished it were over. Of course, she could just give up the whole idea, but Lily Evans was never one to give up, especially when she knew she was right. She took in a deep breath and recomposed herself. "We just need a new approach, that's all." Her foot tapped impatiently on the stone floor of the hallway, one of the several nervous habits that James had recently observed about Lily. Another one, which she was currently trying hard not to do, was gnawing on the tip of her pinky. Not biting the nail, but nipping at the flesh right there. James figured it was a habit that began from biting her nails.

A sharp click of boots on stone snapped Lily out of her toe tapping finger gnawing frenzy and startled James into standing up straight.

"Who's there?" a similarly sharp voice asked sternly, reading to dole out detention if necessary.

The two of them let out breaths of relief and Lily answered, "Just us, Professor McGonagall. We're almost done with our patrol."

The tone of the voice immediately became soft and endearing. "Don't worry about it, Lily. I was only making sure that it wasn't Black up to some sort of mischief. Although, I haven't seen him at detention much lately. I hope that is a good sign." She mumbled the last part to herself as she passed the two teenagers in the hall. "Well, goodnight," she said briefly before walking away.

"I'll think of something later and let you know," Lily whispered to James as soon as Professor McGonagall was out of sight. Then she followed after the Professor, leaving James alone in the dark.

Lily didn't know it, but she didn't have to hatch another plan, though she did anyway. She actually had been sort of proud of her plan and was rather (guiltily) excited about it. However, before she had a chance to share it with anyone, save for Sirius who had hummed loudly to himself as she tried to scream over him, when Clarissa did something completely unexpected (yet also rather predictable).

About three weeks after school started up again, James was sitting by himself in the Gryffindor Common Room (a very very very rare occurrence, but one that happened on occasion). Perhaps, what was even stranger than James sitting by himself was James curled up in the most comfortable chair reading a book. In fact, if one had poor eyesight and thought that Remus had gotten a haircut and dyed it darker, one would have thought that the boy on the chair was Remus. Of course, no one would have made that mistake, but it was the thought that mattered and James, who had been thinking about that, believed that he was beginning to become mature and studious as Remus was, which was a good sign as he was now in his last semester at Hogwarts and no plan for the future. As of yet, of course.

He was just getting interested in his book, which was about Sidney Elmer, a famous Quidditch player (James was still taking his first steps into becoming studious), when a shadow fell upon the page and he looked up to see Clarissa staring down at him. He snapped his book shut and sat up suddenly as she calmly pulled up a chair to sit next to him.

"H-hey, Clarissa. How are you?" James was a little nervous from the conversation he had with Lily about two nights ago, and for some reason he was concerned that Clarissa had found out about their plan, especially with how pensive she stared at him.

"I'm doing well," she answered softly and formally as her gaze turned to the fire and she let out a sigh.

"If you're looking for Remus, he's upstairs in the dormitory," he said, not sure what else to say. He did think it was a little strange that she had gotten in on her own, but he figured Remus must have let her know the password.

"Thanks."

She continued looking into the fire, and he wondered if she was waiting for someone to Floo. Though he had admitted to Remus that she was starting to grow on him, he found it rather awkward to be sitting there watching her as she watched the fire. It was even more awkward that she was sitting so close to him and she was making no attempt to converse with him. After all, she was the one who had sat down next to him. He opened his mouth, about to say something, but she was faster.

"Can I talk to you about something?"

His eyebrows furrowed as he tilted his head slightly, a habit he had picked up from Lily. "Go ahead."

He waited for a minute before deciding that this was going to be one hell of a long conversation with all the pauses going on, but he also decided that it must have been something important for Clarissa to take so long to respond.

Finally, after maybe three minutes, she said, "I like Remus."

James almost burst out laughing, but he managed to keep it inside. All that time with Lily was good for him after all, if only she could see him now. "I knew that."

She bit her lower lip and let it slowly slip away from her teeth. James thought that action would be adorable if Lily did it. He would suggest that as a nervous habit for her the next time they met.

"But I like someone else too."

Really, if only Lily were here. This was exactly the thing she was looking for. James wished he could just summon her now and let her talk to Clarissa. Though, this did seem more like a girl conversation, so why was Clarissa telling him?

"Who?"

Clarissa bit her lip again and stared so intensely at the fire that James was afraid she might make it explode. He wouldn't have minded the chaos, but he was wearing the scarf that Lily had gotten him and he didn't want it to burn. That shade of red-orange would not go well with the shade he was wearing.

After another five minutes, she looked up at him, her eyes oddly clear and decisive. A second later, her hand was behind his neck and her lips were on his. Another second after, James had pushed her away and was standing, his book falling to the ground with a thump. Clarissa stood moments after, looking a little guilty, and opening her mouth in an attempt to explain, but James would have none of that.

"You should really go. I have to go." He snatched up his book. "You should take some time to think," he said, again not really sure of what else to say. "And talk to Remus. That would be a good idea for you to do," he decided for her. "Bye." Then he ran out of the common room to try and find Lily, though he had absolutely no idea where she went. Boy would she be happy she had been right about that conversation. Though, he had been partially right too, pointing out that fact. Lily would probably credit that to his ego. If only he had the Marauder's Map and had not allowed Sirius to take it for some stupid plan to prank Severus. He wondered briefly how that was going, before snapping back to the task at hand. He had to find Lily. She would know what to do next about Clarissa and subsequently Remus and Sirius as well.

A/N: Short and not at all about Sirius and Remus, but it was moving the plot forward, so please sit tight for the next chapter!


	4. Which leads to unavoidable drama

Remus was not as clueless as people seemed to think he was. He just liked to pretend he was because it was easy. No one pestered him about unimportant things and if something went wrong he could just say he had no idea. Not to mention, he liked knowing that he knew more than other people thought he did. It was pretty funny. Usually.

So he caught on pretty quickly to the fact that Lily and James were up to no good. Mostly from the fact that Lily and James were spending an awful lot of time together, making up bad lies about what they were doing, and speaking in whispers. In fact, if he knew that Lily was still mentally sane, he would have thought the two of them were in a secret relationship. Also, Sirius kept turning the conversation away from the two of them whenever he asked. Speaking of whom, Remus was pretty glad that the two of them were hanging out like they used to. For some reason or another, he had the feeling that things were rather awkward between them when he first started dating Clarissa, but now that the two of them were throwing a mix of nuts and Knuts into the snow at the birds outside, laughing at their confusion, he felt like things were right again.

Which was why, when Lily and James came outside, saw the two of them, panicked, whispered feverishly to one another, glanced at the main entrance, and put on airs of casualty before walking over to the two of them, Remus was a little afraid for the normality of his world.

"Why hello there, Mr. Potter and Ms. Evans," Sirius greeted as he stood up and made a little bow. "Fancy seeing you out here in the cold. Perhaps taking a nice romantic walk without exterior motivation?" He raised an eyebrow and Remus noticed how Lily seemed about ready to hex him.

"Black." She glared. "Remus." Normally, the look Lily would have given Remus would have been kind and sweet, a look that he looked forward to each time they spoke. Remus would never have admitted it, but he once had a tiny little crush on her. However, the look Lily was giving him now was guilty, remorseful, and oddly scared.

"Lily?" Remus asked as way of greeting as he moved closer to Sirius to give the two of them room on the bench to join them. Usually, at this time, James would have interrupted the strange pause of silence asking where his greeting was, but James merely sat down on the bench solemnly, not even bothering to brush aside the snow.

Lily kept staring at him as she reached over and clasped his hands. "Remus," she sighed. Then she turned her head to look at James over her shoulder, to which he nodded slowly. "There's something you need to know."

Remus waited for her to say something. She stared at him. He continued waiting, even nodding a little to indicate that he was ready to hear what she had to say, and she closed her eyes and sighed.

"Evans!" Sirius cried appallingly, startling the other three. "Don't tell me Remus knocked you up!"

"What?" the three of them asked simultaneously.

Sirius shook his head. "Remus, I can't believe you. Cheating on your girlfriend, sleeping with your best friend's love of his life, and not even using protection. Haven't you listened to any of our conversations about sex?" Sirius asked as Remus began to smile. "What was the thing that I said was most important?"

"I'm not sure I can say in polite company," Remus replied.

Sirius paused for a moment in thought and then said, "Second most important."

"Protection."

"Yes, protection!" Sirius grasped Remus' shoulders. "Were you too riddled by lust to think of protection? I would have thought Evans would have stopped you to put some on. But I understand if she was distracted. You are quite the hunk."

Remus laughed genuinely and James chuckled along nervously. Lily wasn't sure what to do as she was caught between being shocked at Sirius' words and amused by them at the same time. Finally, James nudged her gently, they shared a meaningful look, and she turned Remus toward her.

"Actually, Remus. Clarissa kissed James," she said seriously, staring straight at Remus.

He stared back rather blankly for a couple seconds, blinking once or twice, before he replied, "Oh."

"I know. It came from nowhere, but it happened maybe an hour or so ago. She just approached James and then kissed him," Lily began to explain.

"It wasn't mistaken identity," James added. "She knew it was me." He was really trying to defend himself. Remus didn't get angry often, but when he did, he was rather terrifying and a great supporter of justice.

"Remus, I don't know what to say." But she didn't have to know, because before she even finished the sentence, Remus was out of his seat and on the way back into the castle.

James, Lily and Sirius watched his ragged robe flow behind him almost serenely as the doors opened and he disappeared behind them.

"He took that well," James commented. Lily nodded in agreement. Sirius glared at the both of them and shook his head, showing real disappointment.

Remus was, in fact, not taking the news well. Perhaps he had always known, at least at first he had definitely thought it to be, that Clarissa actually liked James. But, Clarissa had asked him out. _She_ had asked _him_ out. _He_ had not been a James Potter to her, persistently begging her to go out with him. In fact, he had not been all that keen on the idea in the first place. True, when she asked him out, he agreed almost immediately, but that was because he had never been on a date and he wanted to know what it was like. And he kind of liked her. When he realized these facts, he had told her that they should go out as a trial period and she had agreed. _He_ insisted on the trial period. _She_ had asked _him_ out.

Remus, for all his charm and knowledge, did not understand the opposite gender. He had thought things between them were going along as well as well could be. He had thought they were doing wonderfully. He had thought that the pocket watch she had gotten him for Christmas was a clear sign of her feelings for him even though all that he had been able to afford her was a silk shawl that he thought made her eyes stand out. He had made amazing Valentine's day plans which he was sure was going to amaze her. He had been hoping that they would sleep together soon (not because he was a boy and constantly thinking of sex, but because he actually genuinely liked her). He was getting close to saying he loved her, and he was sure that she felt the same way. He was convinced she felt the same way. He had been floating on clouds knowing she felt the same way.

But, she didn't.

Remus talked to her in a very calm manner and she told him that she didn't. That she was starting to feel that way for him now, but when she asked him out she hadn't.

"It's true. I did like James first, but I never thought I would have a chance with him. He never noticed me even though I tried and tried to get his attention, but he was always stuck on Lily. But, Remus, you did pay attention to me, and I thought-"

"If you couldn't have James, you could have me, right? Or were you just using me to get close to him so he would pay attention to you?" he asked quietly and bitterly.

"Remus, it wasn't like that," Clarissa tried to reason with Remus as she placed a hand on his arm. He didn't shrug it off, but he also didn't acknowledge it. "I thought that it might work out between us, and it did, didn't it?"

Remus smiled almost warmly at her, but she could tell it was sarcastic because his eyes didn't change. "Aside from your true feelings for one of my best friends and then kissing him, it worked out wonderfully. It was amazing."

She held back from cringing as she took her hand away from him and let it fall to her lap. "Remus. I just wanted to see if I still had feelings for him. It looked like he and Lily were going to get serious and I just wanted one last chance. It didn't mean anything. Honestly, Remus, I don't care for him at all. You're the one I like."

"A last chance that didn't mean anything?" he repeated and a slight laugh. "I'm not the one you like, Clarissa. I'm your second choice, your safety net, the one you go to when your first choice doesn't work out. I was your stepping stone. You used me to get closer to James, to get over James, to feel better about yourself. You didn't like me. You don't hurt the people you like intentionally."

"It wasn't intentional!" she shouted back as tears began streaming down her face. "I didn't even realize I was doing it until it happened. I never meant for you to find out."

"Doing what? Dating me or kissing James?"

"Kissing James. I knew I was dating you, Remus. I wanted to date you." She drew out the word "wanted" through her tears, emphasizing the word, willing Remus to understand, but Remus didn't. He just didn't understand what she had been thinking, how she could have knowingly done this, or what she was thinking now. He just didn't understand the opposite gender.

And then he realized he had used her too. He had used her to forget that other person that he liked, and while he hadn't been as bad, he was still hardly better than her. He was being hypocritical, and it was wrong of him. Even though she had helped him get over that other person and he had honestly fallen in love with her, it was still wrong of him.

He took her hand and looked her in the eye with almost the same look Lily had given him. "Clarissa, I love you," he admitted and her eyes lit up as she blinked away the tears.

"Remus," she said breathlessly.

"But we're over."

"Remus," she said again with confusion.

"It's just, I can't do this, knowing that you still like someone else when I love you. I'll be honest with you, Clarissa. I liked someone else too and was hoping you would help me get over that person, and you did. You and your wonderful personality, beautiful body, amazing mind made me forget about that person and fall in love with you. And I felt like I knew everything about you. I felt like you felt the same way for me too. I told everyone I knew about what a great person you are, and, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I don't talk that much to people I'm not close with. And now I feel like such a fool. Maybe, if we kept at it, one day you would feel the same for me, but that one day is just not worth it. If you were really over James, you wouldn't have gone for that one more chance, you wouldn't have had to see if your feelings were really gone. I'm not a big risk taker, Clarissa. You have been the biggest risk I have taken in years and it was fun, but I can't keep going with this risk. I'm a weak person, and it just wouldn't work out." He didn't mention how he felt he could no longer trust her, especially since he was so close to revealing his secret to her. He knew for a fact that he could never been in a serious relationship without the other knowing his secret. If he couldn't trust Clarissa, then it just wasn't worth it.

"Remus," the plea was back in her voice, "please don't."

He let go of her hand and stood up from the desk in the classroom they had been in. "I'll see you in class." Then he walked away.

Sirius had been furious with Lily and James even though it wasn't directly their fault, though he was sure it had been their fault somehow. Especially with Lily's conniving little plans and James' utter love for the girl. Merlin, how could they be so stupid. And that girl, Clarissa. Sirius had just been willing to let everything go and admit that they were great together, the perfect couple in fact, but she had to go ruin it. And now Sirius had to go and comfort Remus due to his stupid friends and stupid girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend. Girlfriend? Sirius hoped it was ex-girlfriend, not just because he had romantic feelings for the other boy, but also because it would be stupid for Remus to still be together with her. Absolutely stupid. And Remus was far from stupid.

After Sirius finished yelling at Lily and James and making them feel bad, even though they didn't deserve to feel quite as bad as Sirius made them feel, he went to the Shrieking Shack to find Remus. Despite the fact that the Shrieking Shack held some of Remus' most painful memories, they also held some of his most endearing memories, and so was the place where Remus went whenever he felt upset.

"Hi Sirius," Remus greeted from the empty bed in the downstairs bedroom where he always began his nights.

Sirius smiled for a reason he couldn't explain as he closed the door behind him and sat down on the bed next to him. "Hey. You know, the full moon's not for a couple weeks. There's no need to get ready this early." It was a lame attempt at cheering Remus up, but Remus forced a laugh all the same.

"Thanks."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Sirius asked, knowing Remus wouldn't say anything unless he did.

"No," Remus replied immediately. "I've talked about it already. I just want it to be over."

"What to be over?" He put his arm around Remus and drew him close.

Remus returned the embrace and sighed. "These feelings. Sirius, why does it hurt so much to lose someone you love?"

Sirius sighed and hugged Remus tighter. "It wouldn't be love if it didn't."

Later that night Clarissa entered the Gryffindor Common Room and walked up to Lily's room. Lily, who was busy reading a romance novel to get rid of the terrible guilty feeling Sirius had inflicted upon her, had not noticed her appearance at first, thinking her to be one of her roommates, until she stood at the food of her bed and cleared her throat.

"Oh," her eyebrows flew up with surprise as she sat up straight and put aside her book. "Clarissa."

"Hi, Lily. How are you?" she asked rather nervously as she fidgeted with her hands.

"I'm good," Lily replied automatically before shaking her head and swing her feet over the side of the bed so they touched the ground. "Actually, I'm not. I'm feeling guilty and rather terrible. I'm pitying a very close friend of mine who hates to be pitied, which is why I can't go see him right now. That, and I don't know where he is. I'm also pitying someone who I thought was a friend of mine, but now I'm not so sure anymore. I'm also angry at that person for screwing things up, and I'm angry at myself."

"Why are you angry at yourself?"

"Because I trusted you and I feel stupid for doing so. It gets even worse, because if you hadn't screwed things up with Remus, I would have screwed things up for you guys. I hate you and myself and I don't know who to blame more." Lily realized she had pretty much exposed her plan, but she was pretty furious at Clarissa solely because she hurt Remus badly and not at all because she had kissed James.

"I'm sorry, Lily. I didn't mean to – Wait. What?"

"What?" Lily half faked confusion.

"What do you mean you would have screwed things up for us?" Clarissa wanted to sit down, but she wasn't sure if Lily would look kindly upon that, after all, she was still at fault. "I thought you approved of us. You said you were happy for Remus that he found me."

"I was. I did. Kind of." Lily was a terrible liar. "It's just that Remus wasn't meant for you." She was about to explain more, when she realized that this was not the point of the discussion. It was enough that Sirius had made her feel bad, but at least he had a reason to. She was not about to let this lying cheater make her feel down too especially when she was the one who broke Remus' heart. "And wasn't I right? I knew from the start that you were wrong for him, but I thought I would give you a chance, especially since he seemed so happy." Lily was still a terrible liar – she was just also good at selectively telling the truth. "But I guess I shouldn't have even bothered if I knew what kind of person you really were. I thought you said you had liked Remus since fifth year."

"I-" Clarissa paused, knowing that whatever she said next was not going to help her case in the least so she may as well tell the trust. "I lied. I had liked James since fifth year. James asked if he could be my partner in Herbology one day and he was so funny. I had such a great time with him and I kept trying to get his attention, but it never worked. Then Remus came along and offered to help, and I knew that Remus was one of James' really close friends, so I thought if I could get to know him better, James would notice me. I never meant to date Remus; it just happened."

"Just happened?" Lily asked incredulously. "Dating somebody does not 'just happen'. What about your whole story? I thought you asked him out. You must have thought about it when you did. And I know Remus was the one who suggested you guys try it out first. Surely, when you realized then that it 'just happened' you could have unhappened it. Were you just acting when you told me how cute Remus was? What about our late night conversations about him?"

"I always thought you were more interested in those than I was," Clarissa mumbled.

"And was that why you asked about James that night?"

"I wanted to see if you liked him. If you did, I wouldn't have kissed him," Clarissa protested.

"But you did because I didn't? You didn't stop yourself because you were dating Remus, but you would have if I told you I liked James?" Lily did not understand at all what Clarissa was thinking.

"I just – I don't know, Lily! I wasn't going to kiss James. I never planned on it. It's just that if you had said you liked him, I know I wouldn't have because you're one of my only female friends and I didn't want to lose you." Clearly Clarissa didn't understand what she was thinking either. "Lily, I don't know. I'm confused. I don't know who I like and I don't know what to do. Remus told me he loved me and I don't want to lose him, but he doesn't trust me and I don't know if I really like him that much."

Lily wanted to be sympathetic. She wanted to tell Clarissa that everything was going to be alright and she would talk to Remus to make things better, because that's what friends did for each other, but she couldn't. She couldn't for the most obvious reasons and she didn't know why Clarissa was here telling her all this because she knew that Clarissa must have known that Lily couldn't help her.

"I'm sorry, Clarissa, but you hurt someone really important to me and you don't even understand that what you did was completely selfish." Lily stood up, walked past Clarissa, and opened the door. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave and never speak to any of us again."

Clarissa stared at Lily with tears forming at her eyes. Then, she lowered her head and walked out the door. Lily shut it behind her and crawled back into her bed. Water was pooling in her own green eyes and there was just too much to think about. So she picked up her book, opened it back to the page she was on, and lost herself in the romance of Pedro and Luciana.

Remus finally spilled everything out to Sirius, never even crying once, until he got to the end. When he did cry, there were no words, loud hiccups, or sobs, just tears falling at first one by one and then streaming down. Sirius held him tightly the entire time, letting his favorite blue sweater soak up with salty water and occasional snot. After an hour of that, Remus, with his golden eyes rimmed with red and his soft brown hair tousled this way and that, hoarsely whispered, "Thanks," and promptly fell asleep. Sirius, feeling suddenly as exhausted as Remus looked, wanted to sleep right there next to Remus and keep him in his arms, but the bed at the Shrieking Shack was pretty much a cement block with a blanket. So he took a deep breath, drawing in all the energy he could, and picked Remus up. Though Remus was usually as light as a feather, today he seemed even lighter as Sirius arranged Remus on his back in a position so the other boy wouldn't fall.

Since it was way past curfew, Sirius carried Remus out the front door of the Shrieking Shack, careful not to be seen by any of the locals, not that any of them really would have been out at this hour, and took him to the Three Broomsticks, which was still roaring with customers. He nodded to Madame Rosemerta and placed Remus down in a booth before taking a mirror out of his pocket.

"James. James Potter. Mr. James Potter," Sirius whispered into the mirror in an almost sing-song manner, waiting a couple seconds after each name to see if there was a response. Being an impatient person, Sirius did not wait too long before taking advantage of a bar fight to shout, "Oi Prongs!"

A moment later, a very tired and groggy looking James peered into the edge of the mirror. He took a second before running a hand through his hair and snapping, "What?"

"You sleeping?" Sirius asked annoyingly with a grin.

"Sod off, Sirius." His face disappeared, but Sirius knew he was still there because he couldn't see his own handsome face. And sure enough, James' face reappeared in the mirror, this time with confusion. "Where the bloody hell are you at two in the morning?"

"Three Broomsticks. I need you to get over here with your cloak. Remus is sleeping and it's past curfew," Sirius explained poorly, but James got the general idea.

"Can't you just come back and get it?" he whined all the same.

"Really, James?" Sirius rolled his eyes. James was such a baby when he was tired. "Besides, you owe it to Remus for kissing his girlfriend."

"I didn't kiss her! She kissed me!" From the other side of the mirror there was a grunt. James turned to see what it was and then looked back. "Fine, you wanker. I'm only coming so I can yell at you without waking Peter."

Sirius smiled with satisfaction and pocketed the mirror. Madame Rosemerta brought over two butterbeers and told him she heard about what happened with Remus and the drinks were on the house. Sirius thanked her and promised to let Remus know when he woke up. After she left, he took a large gulp from one. Really, word spread like wildfire between Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.


	5. And a surprising reply

The first three days of Remus' break up with Clarissa had honestly been terrible. It was not so much the fact that he had broken up with the girl whom he thought he loved, but the fact that everyone else in the entire school knew and kept giving him pitying looks. He wasn't sure how they knew, because as far as Remus was concerned, the only people who had known about the break up had been Clarissa, Lily, James, Peter, Sirius and himself, yet somehow the next morning everyone was telling him how sorry they were about the whole matter, how Clarissa was a slut, and how Remus deserved better. It was a horrible three days. By the time the end of the third day rolled around, Remus had had enough and he saw how depressed Clarissa was. So he went to Clarissa during dinner in the Great Hall and had a public conversation with her about the relationship. There was no fighting or shouting, just a clearing up of some matter and tears, mostly on her part. After Remus had publicly forgiven her and said that maybe after awhile the two of them could try to be friends again, the school seemed to quiet down about the whole matter. James came up to him a little bit later and thanked him because half the school kept giving him accusatory looks. It would have been the entire school if not for Lily, who was now constantly by his side, glaring at anyone who approached him.

When the fiasco died down a couple weeks later, everything seemed to back to the way it was before Remus started dating Clarissa, and everyone, well maybe except for the girl in question, was happy with the way things worked out. Sirius noticed, as Lily had pointed out, how after the break up Remus and Sirius were always together again and the school had a feeling of rightness that he hadn't been aware of before.

"Sirius," Lily whispered from next to his bed, "wake up."

Well, nearly everything was back to normal.

Sirius refused to open his eyes. For some reason, Lily had taken to trying to speak to him alone lately and was having great difficulty doing so, mostly because Sirius was avoiding any alone time with Lily. Now that Stage One of Lily's great plan was over, Sirius was afraid that Lily would force him into Stage Two, which, according to her, would also be the last stage because after he asked Remus out, the two of them would live happily ever after. The only problem was that Sirius had no faith in Lily's great plan and so did not want to confront her. Since he and Remus were the closest of friends again and James was actually getting along with Lily, he thought it would be pretty easy to avoid her. Unfortunately, the girl never seemed to sleep and was always looking for new ways to find Sirius alone.

"Sirius Black, wake up now," she demanded almost angrily and he could feel a threat coming. "I swear, if you don't wake up I'm going to hex warts all over your precious face." He moaned loudly in response and she knew she was getting to him. "And I'll curse your hair to being greasy for the next week and a half. We'll see how much Remus wants to hang around you then, won't we?"

He let out a cry of frustration into his pillow which successfully muffled the sound and kept it from waking his roommates. Then he pried himself from the bed and, with an extremely unpleasant face, glared at Lily. "What the bloody fuck do you _want_, Evans?"

She smiled cheerfully at him and grabbed his wrist. "To talk, Sirius. It has been a long time since we last spoke one on one and I have a feeling that we have a lot to catch up upon." She dragged him out of the dorm room and down to the common room where not a person was in sight due to the fact that normal people did not enjoy being awake at 4:30 in the morning. Bloody Lily Evans and her bloody stupid ideas.

"Well?" Sirius prompted in at a normal volume level as he sunk down into a single red couch and crossed his arms sulkily.

"Well," Lily responded, perching on the edge of another couch which she had pulled to be in front of Sirius', "I think it's time for you to confess."

Sirius sighed deeply and let his chin fall to his chest. As he stared at his belly button, he realized he had left the dorm without a shirt on. Or pants. Thankfully Lily was a one track girl and thankfully he still had his boxers on. After quickly processing these facts, Sirius continued. "Alright, I'll confess." He took in a breath as Lily did. Though, before she could let out a cheer, he went on, "At first I didn't know if you would be the right girl for James, but now I can clearly see that you were meant to be. I mean the perseverance James has for a single target is almost matched by yours. And, might I add-"

But Lily wouldn't let him add whatever it was that he wanted, and let him know so by a smart smack on the arm. "Stop playing around, Sirius. You know what confession I mean. What better opportunity is there than now to let Remus know? Unless you want to wait until some other girl snatches him away. Now that Hogwarts has been alerted to Remus' dating potential, more and more girls will be asking him out, and they'll want to do it fast, since this is his last year."

Sirius rolled his eyes, but he knew Lily was right. He had seen at least six girls confess to Remus and dozens of others staring at him with the obvious intention to do the same. Of course, Remus had turned them all down saying that it was too soon for him to date again, which secretly made Sirius happy on the inside…and the outside, but Sirius knew it was only a matter of time before it wasn't too soon. Not to mention, Sirius was also afraid that if he confessed to Remus, Remus would turn him down with the same excuse.

"Say, Evans, if that's the case for Remus, how come no girl has asked me out lately?" Sirius asked as he combed through his hair and took a look at his shirtless self. It was undeniable that he was sexy and irresistible, yet, as Sirius had just noticed, not a single girl had asked him on a date. Usually, especially around this time of the year, flocks of girls were vying for his attention. Sirius never – well, rarely – ever said yes to them, but he could not deny the fact that he enjoyed the attention. Some would even say that Sirius thrived off of the attention.

To his complete surprise, Lily burst out laughing for a solid five minutes before she clutched her stomach with one hand and the armrest of her chair with the other. Struggling to keep her eyes open enough to stare at Sirius, she answered, through gasps and laughs, "Have you seen the way you act lately? I'm shocked Remus hasn't caught onto anything. Honestly, I'm pretty sure the entire school thinks – no – knows that you're gay for him."

"Do not!" he responded defensively and automatically. Sirius had noticed himself acting a little more defensively than usual, but he was just guarding Remus against those pitying looks of everyone else and anyone else who might hurt his dear friend. "And are you really that eager to get together with James? Because you can always ask him out without the deal in place, you know." Sirius tilted his head up so he could look down at Lily. After all, now was his one up on the girl.

And it worked. Lily turned a lovely shade of red, stood up and towered over Sirius, who was still in his chair. "I'm just trying to help a friend and do what's right." She stormed toward the girls' staircase. Just before she mounted the stairs, she turned around and shouted, "And, unlike you, I don't need any ulterior motivation to ask out someone I like!"

Sirius chuckled to himself after she disappeared. When he finished with a sigh, he got up from the chair and walked back to his bed. As he climbed back under the covers, he heard a rustling from the bed next to him and knew that Remus was just waking up. He listened along to Remus' morning routine, which he had already half memorized, before realizing how creepy he was acting. He buried himself deeper in his bed and grumbled softly to himself. He hated it when Lily was right about anything.

When Sirius woke up later that day, it was already eight thirty. Not only had he missed breakfast, but Defense Against the Dark Arts had already started. He grumbled as he lay in bed for a moment, debating whether or not he should go to class. It wouldn't have been the first time he skipped class, but the N.E.W.T.S. were coming up, and despite his brilliance, he hadn't been reviewing as he should have. After a well thought out debate, the little voice of reason, which usually sounded like Remus, but today had hints of Lily, persuaded him to get his lazy butt out of bed.

After protesting that his butt wasn't lazy, just freaking tired because of Lily Evans, he got it out of bed, dressed it properly, and strolled along to Defense Against the Dark Arts. When he got to the door, he ran for a minute in place, slapped his cheeks and began panting. Professor Ludeekris always fell for his excuses. In fact, if Sirius had anything to say about it, he would say the professor rather fancied him. Of course, Sirius also believed that everybody rather fancied him. Everybody but Remus that is.

Sirius forced open the door with a bang, and pretended shock and humiliation, ready to ramble on about his tardiness and how sorry he was, only to find Professor McGonagall standing at the front of the classroom instead of Professor Ludeekris. Which only made him feel ludicrous.

"Yes, Mr. Black?" she asked through pursed lips. It always surprised Sirius how she was able to form such clear cut words with her mouth hardly open. He figured it would always be a mystery. That and how not a hair on her head ever seemed out of place. He, himself, had tried multiple hair spells to get his hair to be perfectly in place, but they either never lasted for long or never got all his hair to stay together.

"Sorry for my tardiness, Professor." He decided to try the more formal route today. After all, it had been nearly three months since his last detention and he was beginning to enjoy all this free time away from doing menial chores. "I overslept."

Professor McGonagall stared at him wordlessly and blinked several times in shock, as did the rest of the class. After a minute, she cleared her throat and said, "I'm sorry?"

Sirius blinked in return and wondered if what he said was honestly that out of the ordinary. "I said, I'm sorry, Professor. I overslept."

Her mouth opened slightly, and Sirius saw that to be her dropping her jaw. He supposed it was strange for him to be polite to a professor, especially McGonagall, but did she really have to be so rude?

She straightened her back and her glasses and cleared her throat. "Right. Well, don't do it again, Mr. Black. Please, take your seat." She frowned after him as he walked over to James and sat in between him and Remus.

"What's her deal?" he whispered to the two of them.

"What's your deal?" James whispered back as he leaned towards Sirius so they could talk more freely.

"Nothing. What's yours?" Sirius noticed Remus shuffle away from them, as he always did whenever they began to whisper. Naturally, his hand floated up to Remus shoulder, but before it could clamp down on the familiar territory, Sirius suddenly became very conscious of the action and took it back. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Remus said you woke up earlier with Lily," James replied shortly. Though James was usually a very reasonable sort of person, he was quite the opposite when it came to Lily. He was, as they said, a fool in love. Sirius hoped he had never and would never be a _fool_ in love. He was, however, perfectly satisfied with being a _man_ in love.

"Get your mind out of the gutter. Your bloody girlfriend woke me up at four thirty in the morning and demanded to talk."

"My mind wasn't in the gutter, you arse," James snapped back before his expression turned soft. "Lily's my girlfriend now, isn't she?" He stared down at the row in front of them and blew a kiss to the back of her head.

Either the girl had eyes in the back of her head or she had been listening in on their conversation, because she suddenly turned around and glared daggers at both of them.

"Maybe not quite yet," Sirius muttered back as Professor McGonagall turned her gaze on the two of them as well. After having avoided detention five minutes earlier, it would be a shame to get it now.

At lunch that day, Sirius got a nice scolding from Lily. He had no idea why she of all people were scolding him, but she was and James was sitting across from them with a grin on his face and Remus was sitting next to him pretending he didn't know them (which was futile) and Peter was sitting next him, following Remus' lead while occasionally sneaking glances at the other three. After ten minutes of her going on and on about something or another (Sirius had lost track of what she was talking about), Sirius decided he had had enough. He stood up and was about to ask Remus to take a walk with him, when a girl wearing Hufflepuff colors came up to him.

"H-hi," she said shyly.

"Hi," Sirius replied as charmingly as possible. Perhaps, this girl was going to ask him out. Oh, who was he kidding? Of course she was going to ask him out. "Can I help you?" He heard James and Remus begin giggling like schoolgirls behind him and was tempted to glare, but that would ruin the moment.

"C-can I speak to you in private?" she stuttered.

Sirius grinned. "Certainly." He gestured toward the doors and followed her outside of them. There he waited patiently as she fumbled around in her bag.

After a minute or so, she pulled out a carefully sealed pink envelope and handed it to him. "D-do you think you c-could give this to, Remus? I know it's a l-little close to Valentine's Day, b-but I heard he didn't have a date yet." Her face was as red as a beet and Sirius felt like his too, partially out of embarrassment and partially out of anger.

He snatched the letter from her and stuffed it in his pocket. Then he smiled as un-sarcastically as he could manage, which wasn't very, and replied, "Sure, no problem, Miss…?"

"Cloverfield. Gretchen Cloverfield." She smiled cheerily at him. "Thanks a lot, Sirius!" she said before running off.

"That's Mr. Black to you," he growled behind her back as he yanked the letter out of his pocket. He positioned his hands to rip the letter to shreds before guilt racked his conscience. The girl didn't know any better, who was he to deny her dreams? Grumbling to himself, he reentered the Great Hall and stole Remus away before any of the others could ask any questions.

Hand in hand, he led Remus in circles around the castle until they had gone up and down all the moving staircases twice and ended up in the snow outside beside the lake.

"What's the matter, Sirius?" Remus asked once they had settled down. He was lying on his back and making a snow angel which would flutter its wings once Remus was done.

Sirius lay down next to him and began his own angel. "Remus, how come all the girls like you?"

Sirius didn't have to see Remus to know that he was blushing from embarrassment. "Don't tell me you're jealous."

"Maybe," Sirius admitted, though he didn't mention who he was jealous of.

Remus got up from his snow angel and charmed it before answering, "Don't be ridiculous, Sirius. The girls like you more. They're just intimidated by your handsome looks and charming personality."

Sirius sat up too, but didn't bother to move away from his angel. "Oh, stop it," he replied playfully as he pretended to be bashful."

Remus laughed and Sirius grinned. "It's true. Do you know how many girls have come to me in the past two weeks asking about you? There must have been at least a hundred."

Sirius suddenly felt better about himself, and launched himself at Remus in a giant hug to demonstrate that feeling. "Thanks."

Remus shrugged. "Thank them. I'm tired of being the middle man."

"As if I don't do your dirty laundry." Sirius sat up straight and uncrumpled the letter he had shoved into his pocket. "What was her name…Cloverfield…Gretel? Anyway, she said that this was for you."

Remus took it from him and opened it. Sirius watched as he read the letter, but couldn't read what Remus was thinking. When Remus finished, he carefully folded the letter and slid it back in the envelope. Then he folded the envelope into a butterfly and charmed it to fly. Sirius believed Remus could charm anything to do what he wanted.

"What a sweet girl, Gretchen," Remus finally said after the confession flew off.

"Delightful," Sirius noted from his only encounter he ever had with her. Then the two of them fell into a comfortable silence staring at the frozen lake. Across the lake were several forts that they along with James and Peter had made the day before for their epic snowball fight, which ended up causing several bloody wounds due to the fact that James and Sirius liked to play dirty and fill their snowballs with ice.

Sirius wondered what it was Remus was thinking about and whether or not Remus was thinking of him. Which then led him to think about Lily and her words from the previous night. And the words that happened to stick were, "What better opportunity is there than now to let Remus know?" Sirius then decided that he was spending too much time with Lily or that Lily was hanging around him too much. He was beginning to think that maybe James and Lily shouldn't get together, and if they weren't planning on getting together, then he didn't have to confess. Which, of course, brought him to the last thing she said to him last night, and he could never stand for having Lily think she was better than him. And in a moment of personal vendetta against the Lily in his conscience, he asked Remus, "Will you go out with me?"

To which a very shocked Remus replied, after making sure he heard the right words, "No."

A/N: I had this open for about two weeks before finally finishing this chapter, and not in a very inspired way at all. But next chapter will probably be better and the last!


	6. Ending happily ever after

Remus believed that it was quite honestly none of Lily's business how he felt toward Sirius. He especially didn't believe that she, of all people, should be telling him who he belonged with when she couldn't see herself who she was meant to be with. And really, he had had enough of her disappointing looks. Remus hated confrontation, but he also hated being blamed for something that wasn't his fault – he had had enough of that in his life.

"Lily," Remus said as he sat down next to her in front of the fireplace. It was three days before Valentine's Day, but judging by the decorations already hanging in the common room, one would have thought that today was the special day.

"Remus," she answered shortly, not bothering to look up from her book.

"Tell me, Lily, please, what exactly I did wrong," he said, patience wearing very thin. It had been two days since Sirius had asked him out and it seemed that all his friends, with the possible exception of Peter, were ignoring him.

In an exaggerated sigh, she snapped her book shut and turned to look at him. "Remus," she sighed out. "What were you thinking? How could you possibly say 'no' to Sirius? Sirius Black? One of the most charming wizards in our year and your best friend of seven years? Have you heard of him before?"

Despite himself, Remus laughed. "Lily, are you hearing yourself talk?"

She frowned and slapped his arm half seriously. "Shut up, Remus. I'm just trying to make you see what it is you're missing out on. Honestly, Remus, do you know of anyone else who suits you better than he does?" She looked around the room to make sure no one else was listening before continuing in a softer voice, "He accepts you for everything that you are, Remus. I don't mean to sound harsh, but how many people are going to respond positively to your being a werewolf? Not everyone is as open-minded as we are."

Remus "hmm"ed in response to that. Thought her words were true, they still stung, especially since the full moon was only a few days ago.

"Plus, you're the only one I know who has the patience for all that is Sirius Black. Even James gets fed up with him at times."

Remus smiled at her and shrugged. "I'm sure plenty of other people have the patience for Sirius. Besides, aren't you overlooking the fact that we're both male? In the same way that most people aren't open to werewolves in society, most people aren't open to gays in society."

"But he loves you," Lily argued with the naivety of a teenage girl. "Isn't that all that really matters? Can't you see how much in pain he is when he's not with you? Surely you've noticed how last year he kept stalking you during your big fight and waiting for you to just glance at him? Or how while you were dating Clarissa, he kept look for excuses to get away from the two of you? Or how even right now he's hoping that you'll somehow ignore what he said so that you can go back to being just friends because even that's better than this?"

Remus wondered what sort of romance novels Lily read in her free time.

"Remus, I just don't get what objections you have to going out with him," she ended with another sigh. With all her sighing, one would have thought that she was the one with the problem and not Remus.

"Aside from the fact that we're both male? Lily, life isn't some sort of ridiculous romantic comedy film where everything works out just because we love each other."

"AHA!" She pointed her finger at him. "So you love him!"

Remus sighed and pushed her finger away. "That is not what I said."

"Then what did you say?" she challenged.

"I said that life isn't some sort of ridiculous romantic comedy film. We're not going to get together just because we're childhood friends. I am not his one true love. I am absolutely positive that he did not fall in love with me the moment we first met. We're going to go back to being friends and he will get over me. I'm sure that the two of you are just confusing feelings of friendship with romantic feelings. Just because he 'loves' me doesn't mean that it's enough to overcome all obstacles. You're all confused," he concluded, though his rant just made him rather confused.

She frowned and opened up her book again to indicate that she was tired of his nonsense. "I think you're confused." She looked up at him and rolled her eyes. "Since when did you become such a pessimist anyway? Can't you give him a chance or at least think it over some more?" Then she became unnaturally absorbed in her book and Remus decided to find shelter in the Library where his books would not spew such ridiculous notions at him

After Remus left, Lily made her way up to the boys' dormitory where she found Sirius lying on his bed staring absentmindedly at the top of his canopy and James sitting next to him idly flipping the pages in a book. This was the eighth time within the last two days that she had found the two of them in such a setting. Peter, as usual, was nowhere to be seen. James explained that having Peter around greatly irritated Sirius, so they constantly sent him on errands. Though he didn't say it, Lily knew that having her around didn't really help Sirius' mood either, but the stupid boys didn't know how to deal with heartbreak.

"Hello," she greeted, feigning cheeriness as she brought out three chocolate bars from her bag and tossed two at them.

"Lily, my darling!" James exclaimed. He jumped up to hug her, but Sirius glared at him and he stopped. Just for a second, Lily was glad Sirius was in such a sour mood.

"What do you want?" he barked at her while picking up the chocolate and shoving it in his mouth.

"Just wanted to make sure you're alright, Sirius." She sat down on Remus bed next to Sirius'.

"Does it look like I'm alright, Evans? Does it look like your fucking bloody advice was a good idea? Merlin, Evans, can't you just piss off?" He rolled onto his side so his back was facing hers, which was a good thing because she made one of the ugliest faces she could conjure up.

Then she rearranged her features to force a smile and a peaceful voice. "Well at least now you know, right?"

He growled back at her as James watched the two of them as if they would explode into pieces at any second.

"Well, I just want you to know that you shouldn't despair. I just had a talk with our good friend Remus Lupin, and I told him to think things over. So you might be getting a different response soon."

"James," Sirius said as he got off the bed and pulled on a robe. "I'm going to do my homework. When I come back, I don't want to see Evans or any sign of Evans having ever been here, got it?" He didn't wait for a response, but picked up his bag and slammed the door on his way out.

After a few seconds of staring at the door, James smiled and Lily. "Shall we go for a walk, Lily?"

Lily sighed and shook her head. "Forget it, James. I get it. I'm just going to escort myself out and get out of your lives forever." She stood up, straightened her robe, and left, shutting the door gently behind her.

James watched her leave and then said quietly, "I don't want you to be out of my life forever."

Despite Lily's words, she was quite the busy body and the next day woke up with a new plan to get Remus and Sirius together. Quite excitedly, she rushed to the boys' dormitory and gently shook James awake. She clamped her hand over his mouth and placed a finger to her lips before sneaking down to the common room and bid James to follow her, which he did like the lovesick puppy he was.

"Finally, you see my charm and wit," he said once they had settled down on the couch.

"Of course, James. You're absolutely brilliant," she replied tonelessly before her voice leaped up eagerly. "I have an idea on how to get Sirius and Remus together."

"Oh no, Lily, not another one," he groaned. "I don't think anyone can take any more of your plans."

"Just this last one, James. One more and if this doesn't cause anything to happen then I really will give up and stay out of all of your lives."

"Can't you just stay out of their lives?"

"Are you going to listen to me or not?" Lily asked sternly.

"What's in it for me if I do?" Though James always loved to listen to Lily talk, he didn't like the consequences that would occur from his being even remotely related to her plans.

"Well if you help me out with it and it works, then we'll be going on a date, won't we?" she replied almost reluctantly.

His eyes lit up immediately and he leaned forward to hear her better. "Alright, go ahead." He didn't say it, but he felt that she was rather excited for their date and really wanted it to happen. Why she couldn't just admit it on her own…Well, James knew she was just shy.

Sirius felt like someone was stalking him, but no matter how many times he turned around to check, he never found anyone. At first, he had thought that maybe it had been James trying to play a prank on him, but this feeling had been going on all day, and James never had the patience for such a long prank. He had tried jinxing the area behind him, but nothing happened, not that he really expected anything to happen, considering he wasn't really aiming for anything. At some point, he had thought he heard some muttering behind him, but when he turned around it had stopped. Being particularly annoyed, he ran off to the hospital wing pretending to be sick. He made up a bunch of excuses to Madame Pomfrey until she finally gave in and told him to go lie down and be quiet because she other patients to take care of, "ones with real problems" as she had put it.

So he lay down on the bed and barely shut his eyes when he heard a faint familiar voice from behind the curtain next to him.

"I think one of the wounds reopened when I was trying to get a book from the top shelf of the library," it said with effort and pain.

"That's what footstools are for, sweetheart," Madame Pomfrey replied. "You can't keep going around opening wounds. You know these don't heal easily."

"I know," Sirius could hear the smile in the others' voice. "There wasn't a footstool nearby and I didn't think it would happen."

"Oh Remus!" she shrieked and Sirius assumed she saw the wound. "How did you make it up here on your own? Did you leave behind a trail of blood?"

"It's nothing serious. I kept cleaning it off, so you don't need to worry about the floors, Madame Pomfrey." He laughed softly.

Sirius sat up as she said, "You know that's the least of my concerns. I can't do much for you other than wrap it up. But you're not allowed to do any serious stretching for the next week and a half, understand?"

"Yes ma'am."

Sirius watched the shadows interact silently until the female one started putting away the tools. "You should rest for the afternoon. Do you need a sleeping draught, dear?"

"I'll just do my work. Thank you."

"Alright. If you need anything, just let me know." Madame Pomfrey emerged from the curtains to Sirius' side and stared at him sternly. "Don't go disturbing my patients."

Sirius nodded to get her to leave, but the moment that she was gone, he left the bed and went through the curtains to Remus' side.

"Are you okay?" he asked with concern as he sat down on the chair next to Remus' bed and resisted the urge to grab his hand.

Remus looked rather shocked at first, but the smiled widely at him. "Fine, just an accident." He reached out and took Sirius' hand. Remus felt a sense of relief at having Sirius talk to him again even though it had only been three days. He was still confused about everything. The more he thought about it and his conversation with Lily the more he felt like he didn't know how he should feel. On the one hand, he had never thought of Sirius before in a romantic sense. On the other, Lily probably hadn't felt that way towards James before this year either, and weren't her feelings beginning to change? Not to mention she had a lot of valid points to her argument.

Sirius squeezed his hand firmly and grinned back. "Can I see it?"

Remus lifted his shirt to show the bandages that were started to turn red on his stomach. "It's nothing compared to the other day."

Sirius nodded as he used his free hand to gently touch the bandaged area. Though Remus couldn't feel Sirius' hand, he could feel the warmth coming from it, and for some reason at that moment he realized how much Sirius' touch meant to him. Only, Remus had no idea how to put into words what it meant. Despite his vast knowledge of practically everything, he had little knowledge on the practice of intimacy, which was probably why he never got much further than making out with Clarissa.

Sirius set his head down on the part of the bed that was not preoccupied with Remus and continued rubbing Remus' stomach.

"Remus," he said quietly, hesitantly, and almost a little fearfully, "I love you."

Remus smiled and used the hand that wasn't holding Sirius' to stroke the soft black hair next to him. Thank Merlin for Sirius' frankness.

"I know," he replied just as softly. "I love you too."

Sirius' hand paused as he turned his head to look up into Remus' eyes to find them sparkling with mirth. He took his hand away from Remus' stomach and set it down on the other side of Remus as he pulled himself from the chair onto the bed. He lowered his head so that their foreheads were touching and his silver eyes stared straight into Remus' golden ones.

"R-really?"

He felt Remus laugh beneath him before he tilted his chin up and kissed Sirius firmly in response.

As soon as James and Lily had seen Sirius, they ran off to begin their grand scheme. It involved many disguises, sneaking around, frills, kabooms, and house elves. Just as they had finished setting up the common room and casually placing themselves on the sofa, Sirius and Remus entered through the portrait hole close together and talking as they always did.

"James, Lily," Sirius waved as they walked over. "How were classes?"

"Fine," James replied with confusion. "What's with you two?"

Sirius turned to share a secret grin with Remus, but Remus obviously had other plans as he began to take a seat on the red chair that he favored most in front of the fireplace.

Lily, who had seen that secret smile, jumped up and began to scream "NO!" but it was too late. Remus had sat down.

For a second, nothing happened, but all at once, a huge commotion occurred in the common room as apparitions of all sorts appeared from the walls, house elves dressed as Remus and Sirius began acting out scenes, and messages exploded out of fireworks. Remus and Sirius stared flabbergasted at the entire scene, not sure about which to look at and for what amount of time. When the house elves finally finished their last skit and took a bow, the two of them collapsed into laughter for the next hour, trying to say something to Lily and James, but failing miserably. Lily, on the other hand, crossed her arms and pouted at them for the hour, while James was stuck between joining in the laughter and consoling Lily. When Remus and Sirius finally cooled down and explained what happened, Lily jumped up with pleasure and drew the both of them into a tight hug before James joined and declared it a group hug.

"Why Lily, I didn't know you were so excited to go on a date with James here," Sirius said after shoving the two of them off of his Remus, who struggled to retain what little autonomy he had left.

Lily's pout reappeared and her arms reverted to their previous formation. "I was just trying to be happy for you. You could at least be grateful to me once in awhile for helping set you up with the love of your life. And what were you saying, Remus, about life not being a romantic comedy film?"

Remus grinned sheepishly and shrugged. He was saved from words by James' question: "What's a romantic comedy film?"

"Shut up, Potter!" Lily screamed before she stormed off to her room.

Sirius shrugged and settled down on the ground in between Remus' legs. "Must be her time of the month." Then he grinned and pulled James' ear down to his mouth. "Hey, I have a plan to get you together with Lily. Want to hear it?"

A/N: The End! Maybe I'll do a follow-up one shot on this...one day...


End file.
